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Double OT: Tim Thomas, Boston's yoga bear

When Tim Thomas arrived in the NHL against all odds, after a minor-pro career that took him to the ECHL, AHL, Sweden and Finland, he looked a little more Gump than goalie, if you get my drift.

But the pudgy stopper proved immediately that, while he might not be the most conventional-looking stopper, he is easily one of the most competitive. And in the past two seasons, Thomas has worked diligently on both his game and conditioning, making huge strides in both, to the point where many wonder – with Tuukka Rask getting closer on the horizon as the No. 1 man – why the heck did the Bruins bother acquiring Manny Fernandez? Thomas surely could have carried the bulk of the load while Rask developed.

Walk into the Bruins dressing room these days and you might be shocked to see a much thinner, more muscular Thomas. While some athletes might have grown frustrated at their team bringing in more competition, Thomas accepted the challenge and even used it as motivation.

That is a big reason why he stuck around Boston last summer to work out with the team’s strength and conditioning coach, John Whitesides.

“We worked on everything, but he took my cardio to a new level,” Thomas says.

That wasn’t all.

“I also did some yoga, which sounds kind of funny,” Thomas adds. “I actually didn’t know how much it was going to help, but it helps balance out your body. They try to find weaknesses in your body and work on them so they catch up with the rest of your body. Your body is more balanced overall in terms of both flexibility and strength. A lot of the techniques have to do with balance. Not that I think my balance was bad, but it certainly is better now.”

Thomas was the Bruins’ No. 1 goalie last season, recording a 30-29-4 record with a 3.13 goals-against average and three shutouts. While the Bruins rewarded Thomas with a $1-million contract, they also brought in the more established Fernandez from Minnesota.

Thomas insists he was not worried.

In Boston’s first 20 games, Thomas was 8-6-2 with a 1.99 goals-against average. Fernandez, meanwhile, had a spotty start to the year before landing on the sidelines with a knee injury and back spasms.

“The media always thinks I’m Plan B,” Thomas says. “But I don’t necessarily feel that way. They went out and got another goalie, but hey, this is the NHL – you try to make your team as good as you can.

“They never said I wasn’t going to get a chance to get out there and play. I came in this season planning on getting my chance and planning to play well when I got that chance. I don’t think I was ever written off by the organization and I certainly didn’t write off myself.”

When he first joined the Bruins, Thomas often looked like a fish out of water, flipping and flopping all over the ice in an effort to keep pucks out of the net. These days, he looks much more controlled.

“My style has evolved,” says Thomas, who was drafted 217th overall by the Quebec Nordiques in 1994. “Part of it was just settling in. I didn’t play my first big chunk of NHL games until I was 30 and it is different than the minors. Every league is different. I remember in college it took me a few years to adjust to that pace.

“I think I played well when I first came up to the NHL, but my game had to evolve to the pace of the NHL. The fact is, it’s a team game and we’re playing a more controlled style now so that makes my job easier.”

Thomas, 33, says he’ll continue to work as hard as he can and hopes his efforts will be recognized.

Mike Brophy's Double OT appears regularly on The Hockey News.com.
One of THN’s senior writers, Mike Brophy gives you insight and opinion on the world of hockey like no one else. Subscribe to The Hockey News to get Mike's expertise delivered to you every issue.

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No. 1 prospect Nolan Patrick to miss world juniors. How will it affect his draft rank?

Consensus 2017 top prospect Nolan Patrick is not medically cleared to play at the World Junior Championship due to an injury that has kept him out of action since mid-October, but that doesn't necessarily mean his draft stock is falling.

As far as foot-in-mouth stories go, this was my worst. It’s late 2011, and I’m in Sarnia to oversee a photoshoot featuring Alex Galchenyuk and Nail Yakupov. Both are highly touted for 2012 draft, but Galchenyuk is hobbled by a knee injury that will keep him out of all but two games. Gamely, the youngster takes part in the shoot despite a brace on his leg. I try to make small talk with the American-Russian teen. “You must be excited about the world juniors, eh?”

A pall descends on the conversation as Galchenyuk politely reminds Idiot Ryan the knee injury will keep him from going for gold with Team USA. I apologize and do not attempt any more small talk. But here’s the positive to my anecdote: Despite the injury, Galchenyuk was drafted third overall by Montreal and, the next season, helped Team USA win gold at the WJC. In fact, Galchenyuk turned out to be one of the best players in that draft. Right up there with him would be the No. 5 pick by Toronto – Morgan Rielly. Coincidentally, Rielly also missed most of 2011-12 with a knee injury, but the Leafs still took him early. Not that Rielly was kicking back in rehab. “I was concerned,” he said. “You’re a young kid going through something you’ve never gone through before. You want to be a part of your draft year – to compete, to prove yourself.”

Which brings us to Nolan Patrick, the fantastic all-around center for the Brandon Wheat Kings. You may have heard of Patrick, the consensus top prospect for 2017, but you haven’t seen much of him lately. That’s because Patrick was laid up most of the season after sports hernia surgery in the summer, and, like Galchenyuk, Patrick will be forced to miss the World Junior Championship due to his injury. Hockey Canada announced as much on Monday, adding that no replacement has been named for the 18-year-old. And with Windsor’s Gabe Vilardi also struggling through injuries in his draft year, we’re seeing 2012 all over again.

Injuries are tricky for prospects. The main concern, as one scout told me, is whether or not the malady is chronic in nature. That was the fear with Tyler Benson last season. The Vancouver Giants pivot had a painful cyst on his back, then a lower body injury that torpedoed his campaign. One GM I spoke to at the combine pointed out Benson lost essentially a year of development and that was a strike against him. But in the end, Edmonton stepped up and grabbed Benson 32nd overall. So far, he has rewarded the Oilers with a bounce-back campaign in the WHL.

But I can’t say injuries mean nothing in drafting, because we’ve seen the flipside. Brett Connolly missed nearly his entire draft year with a hip injury but still enticed the Lightning enough for them to pick him sixth overall. Connolly did put up points in his next year of junior, but he never turned into an impact NHLer. He’s now on his third franchise in Washington. Was his development path altered by the hip problem, or did the injury obscure his ceiling? These are the questions that keep scouting directors up at night.

As of now? Patrick and Vilardi are great bets to go high in 2017. Since Patrick’s September birthday caused him to miss eligibility for the 2016 draft by mere days, he has a track record already. And Vilardi was an impact OHL rookie whose latest affliction was an appendectomy, which only happens once. “We have lots of info on Gabe and Nolan,” said one scout. “You’re talking about players you could call ‘elite’ prospects.”

And there’s plenty of hockey to be played, especially for Vilardi, who is guaranteed an extended season since Windsor gets an automatic bid for the Memorial Cup as host.

Injuries are a part of the game, and they rarely happen at good times. But if history had been different and Galchenyuk played his full season with Sarnia, would he have gone first overall, before his teammate Yakupov? These are the fateful decisions NHL teams have to live with.

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Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin has turned into quite the find, and on Wednesday he flashed some uncanny offensive awareness and skill with a creative skate pass to set up a power play goal.

It’s taken all of one full season for Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin to go from NCAA standout to top-pairing rearguard in the NHL, but much of that has to do with his ability in his own end.

Don’t take that to mean Slavin can’t make something out of seemingly nothing on offense, though.

During Wednesday’s meeting between the Hurricanes and Ducks, Slavin was manning the point on a power play late in the first frame. As the puck was worked back to Justin Faulk, Slavin retreated back to give his partner a passing option, and when the puck came across the line, it was headed to Slavin’s backhand side, meaning he would have had to slow it and settle it in order to make a play. Instead, he used his feet.

Slavin, in a brilliant display of skill, opened up his stance, let the puck glance off of his right skate and deflected the puck perfectly into Teuvo Teravainen’s wheelhouse. Watch him finish the clever play off with a rocket of a one-timer:

That’s a thing of beauty from start to finish.

As mentioned, Slavin isn’t exactly known for his ability to produce with the puck on his stick, but he is well on his way to surpassing his rookie season output. He notched two goals and 20 points in 63 games during the 2015-16 campaign, and is on pace for three goals and 25 points this year, already with one marker and eight points to his name.

What Slavin brings to the Hurricanes definitely goes beyond his offense, though. In Wednesday’s game, a tough 6-5 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks, Slavin skated more than 28 minutes. It was his season high, but just one of seven games in which he has seen more than 25 minutes of ice time. The only player averaging more ice than Slavin is Justin Faulk, and that’s by a mere two seconds per game.

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Coyotes’ Cunningham alert, awake and joking with teammates, but remains in hospital

There’s still no word as to what exactly caused Coyotes AHL captain Craig Cunningham to collapse on ice, but the 26-year-old was in contact with teammates and cracking jokes earlier this week.

More than two weeks after collapsing on the ice ahead of an AHL game between the Coyotes and Jets AHL affiliates, news has come that Craig Cunningham is starting to get back to his old self.

According to Tucson’s KVOA, Cunningham spoke with two teammates, Brandon Burlon and Christian Fisher, via FaceTime earlier this week, and both said that things are starting to look up for the 26-year-old Cunningham.

Fisher added that it was nice to see Cunningham, the captain of the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate Tucson Roadrunners, smiling again. But he wasn’t just smiling, he was also trying to have a good time with his teammates while hinting that he wants to get back on the ice.

“He was cracking jokes just as if he were here the next day," Fisher told KVOA. "It was pretty funny. He said he wanted us to come pick him up and take him to the rink. He was joking around. Stuff like that.”

The mystery still remains as to what caused Cunningham’s collapse, however. It came just moments before the game was set to start and resulted in medical staff in the building cutting away his equipment in order to attend to him. Cunningham ended up leaving the ice on a stretcher, was transported to hospital and he remained in critical but stable condition for much of the past two weeks.

Still, though, Burlon and Fisher said that there’s no “definitive answer” as to what caused Cunningham’s medical emergency. That’s more than all right with both players, too, so long as Cunningham’s health is starting to look up.

"What we do know is that he is doing well and we are moving forward here," Fisher told KVOA. "Hopefully, he will start the road to recovery now.”

Cunningham has suited up for 319 AHL games over the course of his career, netting 101 goals and 203 points, as well as scoring an additional three goals and eight points in 63 NHL games. He was drafted 97th overall by the Bruins in 2010, but was picked up by Arizona off waivers from Boston during the 2014-15 season.

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The Rangers started the season as one of the league’s hottest teams, but have come back down to earth lately. Getting back on track will be a bit harder without the services of Rick Nash for the next week.

Another year, another ailment for Rick Nash, but luckily for the New York Rangers winger this one won’t be keeping him out of the lineup long-term.

Nash, 32, was forced to the leave the Rangers’ loss to the New York Islanders early on Tuesday, suffering a lower-body ailment that put him out of the game, and an MRI on Wednesday revealed that Nash will be sidelined for somewhere in the neighborhood of one week due to a groin injury.

Considering Nash was forced out of action due to the injury, that he’ll miss only one week is about as good as the news could be. Most Rangers fans would have thought the worst when Nash was forced to leave the game, especially given he missed nearly a quarter of the 2015-16 campaign due to a knee injury.

Being out for a week would force Nash, currently third on the Rangers in scoring behind J.T. Miller and Kevin Hayes with 18 points, to miss anywhere from four to six games, depending when he’s feeling fit to return to action. Only one of those games are divisional games, which is a slight bonus, but the set of games against the Chicago Blackhawks is certainly a pair the Rangers could use Nash for, and getting by the New Jersey Devils and Winnipeg Jets without Nash in the lineup is going to require someone else stepping up.

Nash is in the midst of quite the bounce back season, too. While it may be a far cry from his remarkable 2014-15 campaign in which he scored a career-best 42 goals to go along with 69 points, Nash has already potted 11 goals this season and, prior to his injury, was on pace for another 30-goal campaign.

Even if Nash reaches the 20-goal mark this season, though, it would be a step up from his past campaign. He managed only 15 goals and 36 points in 2015-16, making for the lowest full-season goal total of his career.

Nash isn’t the only injury concern for the Rangers right now, however. New York will also be without Matt Puempel for the foreseeable future due to a concussion and Mika Zibanejad’s broken fibula will likely keep him out of action for at least another month, if not more.

The Rangers, who started the season as one of the league’s hottest teams, are just 4-5-1 in their past 10 games.